|
by
Doug Ward |
The message of Jesus of Nazareth elicited a wide range of
responses from his contemporaries. Some, like his core group of twelve
disciples, did not hesitate to leave everything behind to follow him (Lk 5:11).
As Simon Peter, a spokesman for the twelve, once observed, "Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life ...." (Jn 6:68).
On
the other hand, there were some who violently opposed him. For example, when
Jesus criticized the lack of faith he encountered at his hometown synagogue,
the people there reacted in anger. Luke reports that "they rose up and
drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which
their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff" (Lk
4:29).
Luke
4:29 is a suspenseful juncture in the Gospel narrative, with a mob preparing to
push Jesus off a cliff. Strangely, though, Luke says little about what happened
next. "But passing through their midst, he went away," is his abrupt
and cryptic conclusion to the Nazareth synagogue account.
|
Clues
about the Cliffhanger |
The brevity of Luke 4:30 arouses our curiosity, causing us to
wonder how Jesus escaped the mob at Nazareth. As we continue reading, we are
given several clues that suggest what happened.1
First
of all, Jesus' journey was not an aimless one. He had set out "to proclaim
good news to the poor" (4:18), and he was determined to accomplish that
goal. When he decided to move on after ministering in Capernaum, he stated,
"I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as
well; for I was sent for this purpose" (4:43).
Jesus
also implied in Nazareth that he would carry on in the tradition of the
prophets Elijah and Elisha (4:24-27). Two examples are recorded in Luke 7. As
Elisha had healed Naaman the Syrian (2 Ki 5:1-14), so Jesus healed a
centurion's servant (Lk 7:1-10); and as Elijah had revived the son of the widow
at Zarephath (1 Ki 17:17-24), so Jesus raised up the son of the widow at Nain
(Lk 7:11-17).
Moreover,
Jesus' destination was not random. He made it known that he was headed for
Jerusalem (Lk 9:51-53), where death awaited him (13:33). That death, however, was
not the final word. At one point he explained to the twelve, "See, we are
going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by
the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the
Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after
flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise"
(18:31-33).
These
clues make clear that in the Gospel of Luke, the ministry of Jesus proceeded
according to a preordained plan, a plan that God would not allow to be thwarted
by the whims of a mob in the village of Nazareth. At Nazareth it was not yet
time for Jesus to die. There still were many things for him to accomplish.
When
we read Luke 4:30 in the overall context of the Gospel of Luke, the implication
is that God intervened to rescue Jesus at the cliff so that his plan could be
carried out. This rescue from death at Nazareth foreshadows the later
resurrection of Jesus at Jerusalem. In the literary structure of Luke's Gospel,
these two miracles would form a set of bookends at the beginning and end of
Jesus' earthly ministry.
A
divine rescue in Luke 4:30 is also consistent with the series of miraculous
escapes that Luke reports in the book of Acts, the sequel to the Gospel of Luke.
In Acts 5:19-20, an angel released Peter and John from prison. Similarly, an
angel led Peter out of prison in Acts 12:6-11. An earthquake freed Paul and
Silas from bonds in Acts 16:25-26. A mob at Lystra stoned Paul and left him for
dead, but Paul then simply got up and walked away (14:19-20). Later, at Malta,
Paul survived a deadly snakebite (28:1-6). In each case, God intervened so that
the spread of the Gospel would continue as planned.
|
Fulfilling
Psalm 91 |
In the escapes of Acts 5 and 12, God sent angels to aid the
apostles. It would have been fitting if God also had sent angels to assist
Jesus in Lk 4:30. Such an event would constitute a fulfillment of Ps 91:11-12,
which says, "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in
all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot
against a stone."
A
fulfillment of Ps 91:11-12 is suggested by the fact that these verses are
quoted in Lk 4:10-11, when the devil invited Jesus to prove his divine sonship
by throwing himself from the top of the Temple. Jesus countered the devil's
proposal by quoting Dt 6:16 ("You shall not put the Lord your God to the
test"), but he did not deny that Ps 91:11-12 applied to him. Indeed,
Matthew and Mark mention that Jesus received angelic assistance after the
wilderness temptation (Mt 4:11; Mk 1:13). Luke mentions that the devil
"departed from him until an opportune time" (Lk 4:13), raising the
possibility that the devil was involved in the attempt to kill Jesus at
Nazareth, and that angels were sent to prevent Jesus from "striking his
foot against a stone."
In
Lk 10:19 Jesus told a group of his disciples, "Behold, I have given you
authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the
enemy, and nothing shall hurt you." Here Jesus was applying Ps 91:13
("You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent
you will trample underfoot") to his disciples. This use of Ps 91:13 is
another point in favor of a fulfillment of Ps 91:11-12 in Lk 4:30.
The
frustrating vagueness of Lk 4:30 may have been a deliberate strategy on Luke's
part, prompting us to read further and carefully consider the overall message
of his Gospel and the book of Acts. In these books we find hints that a divine
intervention occurred at Nazareth to enable the fulfillment of Jesus' messianic
mission.
1For
a discussion of these clues, see Bruce W. Longenecker's Hearing the Silence:
Jesus on the Edge and God in the Gap-Luke 4 in Narrative Perspective,
Cascade Books, 2012.
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